


An Understanding of Abstractions

by EarthGirl



Category: Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-04 23:03:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4156281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthGirl/pseuds/EarthGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of The Caves of Steel from Daneel's pov.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Conscience came in a single moment. He was instantly aware of who he was, where he was, and what was his purpose. But his brain needed a few moments to properly respond to the suddenness of external stimuli, and at first the novelty of senses such as sight and hearing overwhelmed him. After an initial adjustment, the unpleasantness passed and his eyes focused on the two men staring critically at him. There was no mirror in the room, but his programming informed him that he looked exactly like the one on the right. It was he who spoke first.

“Raise your right arm.”

He did, obediently. Other commands followed. Raise the left arm, take a series of steps, and a series of other coordination exercises that he executed perfectly. Finally, the man said it was enough, and he returned to the straight standing position in which he had been at the time of activation.

“What is your name?”

“Robot Daneel Olivaw” he said, speaking for the first time. His voice, too, was a perfect copy of the man’s.

“Do you know who we are?” asked the other man.

“You are Doctor Han Fastolfe, and this is Doctor Roj Nemennuh Sarton. You are leading roboticists from the planet Aurora, and my creators.”

“Do you know why it took two of the best roboticists in the universe to create you, Daneel?”

“I am the first prototype of a new type of robot that is completely humaniform.”

“And why was it necessary for us to create a robot that looked so much like a man? In other words, do you understand your purpose?”

“I was created to infiltrate the Cities of Earth and study the psychology of Earthpeople in order to collect information that may facilitate the conversion of the planet to C/Fe societies, such as those existing in Spacer worlds.”

 

* * *

 

At first, he spent most of his time studying facts about Earth. Most of the information available, as well as a detailed explanation of the history behind the current political situation, had been included in his initial memory bank. However, even without robots entering the Cities, new details were learned every day, and it was also considered important that Daneel was up to date in most current events at New York. He had been told he would be sent into the City as soon as he was considered ready, but that he had yet much to learn in other to be able to pass as an Earthman.

“Here in Spacetown, whether we like it or not, you are constantly surrounded by Spacers, and must inevitably be memorizing some of our customs that, unbeknownst to us, might cause you trouble were you to imitate them in New York. There must be more to these people than the stereotypes we currently know of unhygienic crowded spaces, extremely conservative politics, and violent anti-Spacer and anti-robots prejudices, and we can’t let you go until we are convinced that even on limited information, you know them and their affairs well enough to pass as one of them.”

“Obtaining complete certainty on this matter might be difficult, Dr. Sarton, considering the disturbing lack of knowledge on the subject is the precise reason for which I was created. It seems to me that some small room for risk must be allowed, lest the situation become paradoxal.”

Dr. Sarton was apparently shocked. His face turned fully towards the robot, and he gave him an angry order:

“Don’t talk back, Daneel.”

Daneel felt confused. He knew Dr. Sarton was employing an idiomatic expression and did not literally mean Daneel was no longer allowed to carry conversations. But unless the vocabulary section of his memory bank was outdated, which it should not be, since he had been functional for only two weeks, the expression “talk back” meant being rude and disrespectful towards an authority figure. Dr. Sarton was certainly such a figure, but Daneel failed to see how stating a fact could be rude or disrespectful. Could he be failing to interpret some social queue?

Being forbidden to speak to Dr. Sarton about the subject, he briefly considered asking Dr. Fastolfe for an explanation on how his actions could have been offensive, but decided against it. Talking about that interaction with a third part might be offensive to Dr. Sarton as well, and he could not risk it. Remaining silent, it seemed, was the only possible course of action.

However, he decided to pay special attention to conversations between people in different positions of authority, to try to determine what his mistake had been. The possibility of breaking the First Law out of ignorance or accident was highly unpleasant, and so was being in the position of not being able to ask for directions on how to minimize that risk.

 

* * *

 

“One of our biggest difficulties, of course, is that we haven’t spoke to a great variety of Earthpeople” Dr. Sarton told him a few days later. “I cannot believe all of them are content with their planet’s situation.”

They were not, Daneel thought. The Spacers knew that much. The Medievalist movement believed that the institution of Cities had been a mistake, and wished to return to a more natural, agricultural age. The robot chose to not point that out, however. Dr. Sarton was perfectly aware of the existence of Medievalists, and their omission from his speech was probably intentional. Interrupting him to point out something obvious might not be considered respectful, and Daneel had learned that it was better in such a situation to wait for Dr. Sarton’s point to be made, and then point out the missing information only if it was essential.

“Just like the Pro-Earth movement is a numerical minority on the Spacer worlds, it is possible that there is a small group of Earthpeople interested in emigration, or at least in some form of action towards the betterment of their society, and that may be converted to emigration support and C/Fe acceptance with relative ease. When you enter the City, looking for such people will be one of your priorities. Cerebroanalyse everyone you have a chance to.”

Daneel nodded to signal he had understood.

“We cannot tell you what exactly to look for, as cerebroanalysis is not something that humans can completely understand. But you will have a chance to study the brain of an Earthman three days from now. Commissioner Julius Enderby will come to Spacetown to meet you, and although he is one of the politicians to whom we are accustomed, and cannot be of use to us in the emigration question, studying the differences between his brain and those of Spacers may give you a starting point towards understanding Earthpeople’s minds. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Dr. Sarton.”

“Good, you are dismissed then. I had some City newspapers delivered to your room. Studying then should take you most the evening.”

Dr. Sarton picked up a book and started reading it. Daneel rose from his chair and hesitated for a moment.

“Good night, Dr. Sarton.”

“What?” murmured the man, without looking up from the book. “Oh, of course. Good night, Daneel.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for beta reading this, GaiaHypothesis. :) (Any mistakes are completely my fault).


	2. Chapter 2

Daneel was finishing to get dressed for his meeting with Commissioner Enderby when he heard an unprecedented commotion outside of his room. Worried about the possibility that some accident had happened, he rushed outside and was faced with the worrying sight of several human beings in state of extreme agitation, running around the building, apparently aimlessly.

“What happened?” he inquired of the closest one.

“Sarton was murdered!” the man replied in a shaken voice.

Daneel had never felt anything similar to this. It was as if his thoughts had slowed down to such a low speed that he feared his brain might at any instant cease to work. His entire body was assaulted by an unfamiliar and extremely unpleasant sensation, he felt his knees give under him, and fell to a sitting position on the floor.

“You fool, what have you done?!?” a nearby woman said to the man he had been talking to. “You can’t just shock a robot with news like this, don’t you know anything about the First Law?!? This one cost more than you make in five years, if you broke him Sarton soon won’t be the only corpse in this building!”

Daneel was barely listening. What little of his brain was functioning was intensely focused on the word “murdered”. That word existed in his programming, but he had never dwelt on it before. It was a horrible word, the mere thought of which made him unwell. It was always terrible for a person to die, especially if it was a human being, but for a person to die because someone had intentionally ended their life? It was unthinkable, beyond disturbing…

“Daneel?”

He had been staring at the floor, and now lifted his head to see Dr. Fastolfe standing in front of him.

“I understand you’ve suffered a sizable positronic shock. But there is no time for a crisis.”

He tried to focus on Dr. Fastolfe’s voice, but his reactions were still too slow.

“There was nothing you could have done to prevent Sarton’s death. You have not broken the First Law. But you will be breaking it if you do not recover from this and help us to find the culprit and prevent them from harming other human beings.”

The horrible sensation still had hold of most of his senses, but those words had caught his attention, and he felt his ability to concentrate return to approximately half of its usual strength.

“How can I help?” he asked, surprised at how difficult it was to speak.

“First, we need you to cerebroanalyse Commissioner Enderby, as he is the only outsider we know to be present in Spacetown. Then I’ll need to make an adjustment to your programming. We may need to send you into the City earlier than planned.”

 

* * *

 

Daneel had, of course, been warned about the short life span and unhealthy lifestyle of Earth humans, but meeting one in person was still a shock, as he had never seen a human being with a more sickly appearance. The Commissioner was distressingly pale, which Daneel supposed was a common characteristic of several Earthpeople. On second thought, however, he realized that some of the pallor was due to how nervous the man was, rather than to lack of sunlight. Commissioner Enderby was trembling uncontrollably, and his hands kept fidgeting with a strange object Daneel did not know, which looked like two small circles connected to each other by a short rim, and each connected to a longer rim.

Dr. Fastolfe made the formal introductions, and Daneel stepped towards the Commissioner with a hand extended in greeting. Instead of shaking it, the Commissioner stepped away, apparently in instinct. His distressed appearance and mental aura were highly uncomfortable to Daneel, and sensing that his presence was in itself a stressing factor, he decided to stand as far away as possible from the man.

While Dr. Fastolfe and the Commissioner spoke, Daneel ran a detailed, but fast, cerebroanalysis of the Earthman, and  
instantly cleared him of the crime. He was obviously incapable of murder. Unwilling to lose useful time and to continue to stress the Earthman with his presence, Daneel plucked at Dr. Fastolfe’s sleeve and whispered the result at him.

“Right”, said Dr. Fastolfe, “then go through Spacetown and run detailed cerebroanalysis of the entire personnel. If anyone would be capable of murder, report to me immediately.”

Daneel did so, and the results were as expected. None of his coworkers would be capable of such an action. The robot reflected that he should be grateful for that result, but a problem kept distracting him from the good news that the culprit was not a Spacer.

Both Drs. Sarton and Fastolfe had referred to Commissioner Enderby in his presence as “as far as we can know, a perfectly typical Earthman”, and so far Daneel had no cause to question that description. And he knew himself to be a highly precise and delicate cerebroanalysis machine in perfect working order.

And yet, his cerebroanalysis of the Commissioner had revealed none of the significant differences from Spacers’ minds that the late Dr. Sarton had expected him to find.

 

* * *

 

Daneel spent the following days waiting while Dr. Fastolfe and Commissioner Enderby discussed the details of his expedition into New York. Since his departure could be announced at any moment, he had been dismissed from his previous functions and had decided to dedicate his now excessive free time to a further study the human mind.

Not that investigating Earth psychology was still his main mission. On the night of the murder, Dr. Fastolfe had explained to Daneel that, since Spacetown personnel were all cleared, the crime had most likely been the act of a violent Medievalist group, and locating them and stopping their actions was an important step in turning Earth society as a whole towards a more favorable opinion of C/Fe.

Daneel was, then, to infiltrate Earth as a detective and to work with an Earth policeman to find the culprits of Sarton’s murder and keep them from further violence and interference with Spacetown’s plans. And since he was going to work as a detective, his new main directive, as per an appropriate alteration in his programming executed by Dr. Fastolfe on the day after the murder, was to enforce justice, which is to say, the obedience by all of the laws.

However, as there were no law disturbances in Spacetown, he had nothing of pressing importance to attend to, and judged that focusing on studying the human mind was a worthy use of his time, as it might lead to discoveries that might be useful in his search for Earthpeople who could be converted to the plans of C/Fe emigration. His new drive for justice did not alter the fact that converting Earth was Spacetown’s mission, and while he was to dedicate himself to the search for the criminals, he had been instructed to still be extremely alert to possible allies in Earth’s population.

The atmosphere in Spacetown on the days after the murder gave him ample opportunity to obverse human behavior in circumstances he had not encountered before. People were tense and filled with anxiety. They had thought their security to be perfect, and although the people of Earth would have no reasons strong enough to attack anyone else at the station (except perhaps Dr. Fastolfe, who appeared to remain calm), people were still afraid. They had taken to walking in groups of two or three, and taking extra security precautions through the day.

Seeing that those measures seemed to make the humans about him feel safer satisfied a First Law impulse in Daneel, and although thinking about the murder still made him uncomfortable, he too started to feel slightly better. However, he could not help feeling a bit strange when he patrolled the corridors by himself and saw all the scientists that had helped to test and instruct him walking in pairs. He did not fear for his own safety, but he considered it strange that despite his superior strength and reflexes, nobody seemed to have considered asking him to be one of their safety partners.

After reflecting on the question for a few hours, he concluded that perhaps it was natural. Human beings required psychological safety as much as physical safety, and so it was to be expected that they preferred to stay close to their friends. Daneel was too young, too new on the team to be in such good terms with any of his colleagues. It made sense that nobody had asked him.

Still, being the only one walking alone made him feel strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I can't believe the amount of support the first chapter got! Thank you so much, you guys are the best. ^^
> 
> I've decided to update weekly. New chapters will be posted on Wednesdays. :)


	3. Chapter 3

Daneel was standing in Dr. Fastolfe’s office, waiting as his creator sorted through a few papers.

“Ah, here they are” he said at last, handing the robot an envelope and an ID card of a model Daneel had not seen before. It had his picture and name in it, with the exclusion of his first initial, and indicated a rating of C-5 in New York City’s police.

“I take it that Commissioner Enderby has selected my partner in the investigation?”

“Yes, and I have looked through his files and approved of him. All of his data is in this envelope. Study it and get back to me, I want to hear your impressions.”

“Yes, Dr. Fastolfe.” said Daneel, retiring to his own quarters. Once there, he opened the envelope and studied the files.

“Baley, Elijah. Age: 42. Rating: C-5.” The professional records were good, and there was a very encouraging evaluation report by Commissioner Enderby, highlightening the man’s loyalty.

The interesting part, however, was the official psychic profile. According to it, Elijah Baley was a creative man, whose high rate of solved cases was in part due to his willingness of thinking outside of usual patterns. Even more relevant, he seemed to have a practical nature that allowed him to always find an application for his theories and ideas, thus leading his cases to successful conclusions. That, Daneel imagined, was what Dr. Fastolfe had wanted him to notice. A combination of an open mind and a practical nature might indicate Elijah Baley as a potential ally in the emigration question.

The file also mentioned strong anti-robot feelings, especially in what concerned their use in the police department, but that was to be expected of an Earthman. If he accepted the mission, which his file indicated he would, certainly that would mean he would collaborate with Daneel regardless of his personal inclinations?

Daneel hoped he would. The file in his hands indicated that Elijah (he hoped his partner would not object to the Auroran custom of addressing each other by first name. Daneel did not know what the Earth custom was in a relationship such as theirs was to be, and expected that would be the first new information he would discover about the planet) was a highly competent professional, which Daneel appreciated. He wanted to bring this case justice as soon as possible.

* * *

 

On the following afternoon, Daneel dressed in the set of Earth-clothes supplied to him and left Spacetown to wait for his partner, who arrived slightly ahead of the scheduled time.

Elijah Baley had a long face and dark brown eyes. His hair was also dark brown, but with a few greying streaks. His skin was pale, but from what Daneel could judge of Earth standards, he looked healthy for his age. His cerebroanalysis indicated he was nervous about the upcoming encounter, which was to be expected, considering his opinions about robots working with the police, but Daneel was convinced by his analysis that those opinions would not impair his professional attitude.

The cerebroanalysis also confirmed the impressions left by the psychic profile, which was most satisfactory. In their last conversation before Daneel’s departure, Dr. Fastolfe had confirmed Daneel’s interpretation of the profile and ordered him to study his partner closely, not just to determine if he might be converted to the emigration cause, but also to see if studying his mind might help Daneel to identify similar ones. From the initial cerebroanalysis, the only unexpected item of interest Daneel could identify was that the report, while mostly accurate, had not given any indication of intensity he felt in the human’s mind, which seemed to pervade his entire mental aura, and that he believed Elijah applied to his every thought and action of importance. Perhaps, Daneel reflected, that intensity could not be identified by human tests.

The man approached and introduced himself in a monotone, professional manner.

“I am plain-clothes man Elijah Baley, Police Department, City of New York, Rating C-5. I have been instructed to meet R. Daneel Olivaw at Spacetown Approachway” he said, showing Daneel his credentials. He then looked at his watch. “I am a little early. May I request the announcement of my presence?”

“It will not be necessary” replied Daneel. “I have been waiting for you.”

His partner started to raise his hand, but before Daneel could do the same to shake it, he dropped it. The neutral expression had disappeared from his face, and although Daneel was at a lost regarding the reason, he did not need cerebroanalysis to tell him the Earthman was shocked. He waited for a couple of seconds, but when no comment was made, he proceeded.

“I shall introduce myself. I am R. Daneel Olivaw.”

“Yes? Am I making a mistake? I thought the first initial-“

Daneel hoped there had been no communication errors. Although Elijah’s psychological profile indicated he would be willing to work with a robot if necessary to solve a crime, he could not predict how the man would react if such a job condition had been kept secret from him until that moment.

“Quite so” he said, cautiously. “I am a robot. Were you not told?”

“I was told” said the man, and Daneel felt relieved. Yet, Elijah still appeared to be disturbed, and he took a moment before finally extending his hand.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Olivaw. I don’t know what I was thinking of. Good day. I am Elijah Baley, your partner.”

Daneel shook the offered hand. “Good”, he replied, yet he did not think he could start this mission with doubts regarding his partner’s thoughts about him. He decided it was best to try and establish the ground rules as early as possible, and so questioned Elijah on his disturbance and asked him if it would be contrary to his customs if they addressed each other by first name. As it turned out, it would not, and Elijah’s shock was related only to Daneel’s appearance, not his nature. He had for some reason been expecting a crude model, which Daneel did not think made sense, as such a robot would attract undesirable attention within the City. He pointed the fact out, and Elijah agreed his reasoning was correct.

They left Spacetown, Elijah leading the way as Daneel attentively observed the City around him. It was interesting to be surrounded by so many people, and slightly disturbing to see their appearances, all perfectly healthy for Earth standards, but looking, due to paleness and wrinkles, a bit sickly to his eyes, accustomed as they were to Spacer humans.

Getting settled in the Expressway was an interesting experience. Due to Daneel’s roboticism, Elijah failed to realize he would have been temporarily granted a rating equal to his own. Daneel saw the experience as the first of what he expected would be many instances during his stay on Earth in which he would witness a human being’s prejudices interfering with their thought process, regardless of how intelligent the human in question was.

Elijah appeared to be anxious and troubled through the entirety of their Expressway journey, but once they got out of the vehicle Daneel thought their interaction was starting to improve. Elijah started to give him a lecture on the structure of the City, and although Daneel had cut it short by informing him he had already been briefed in those matters, and therefore there was no need for Elijah to waste time and energy by giving him information he already possessed, he thought that making a spontaneous effort to teach him about his new surroundings was a curiously kind gesture on the Earthman’s part.


	4. Chapter 4

They made their way out of the central area of the City and entered a less agitated one, where the office buildings gave way to presumably residential ones. The ground floors housed small business of all kinds. There were stores selling housework items, clothes, toys, and a variety of other products. Daneel observed them closely, trying to notice details about their functioning and people’s behaviors while shopping. There were no such places in Aurora, where clothes were designed by personal stylists and made by their robots, children were all kept in a single state, in which all of their toys were produced, and household items were acquired by robots, directly at the factories.

Their path was suddenly interrupted by a commotion in front of a small shoe store. Elijah’s troubled look told Daneel this was not usual, and he followed quietly as Elijah authoritatively inquired of the nearest person what were the causes of the disturbance.

“They got those lousy R’s in there. I think maybe they’ll throw them out here. Boy, I’d like to take them apart” said a young man, whom Elijah had not addressed, and Elijah glanced nervously at Daneel. In Daneel’s opinion, he had no reason to be nervous. None of the people around them gave any signs of suspecting Daneel’s true nature, so there was no cause to fear their authority would be questioned. Of course, Daneel was slightly disturbed to hear the violent comments directed towards robots, which got louder and louder as they advanced towards the store, Elijah opening their way through the crowd by announcing “police!”. But he had been sufficiently briefed in Earth culture to not be caught by surprise, and as they had arrived in time to stop the riot, save the robots inside, and restore civic peace, he was sure the situation would soon be satisfactorily solved. As soon as two lawmen entered the shop and took care of the original cause of the disturbance, the crowd would surely disperse.

The entrance to the store was protected by a force door. Daneel used his neutralizer to follow Elijah inside (noticing, in the process, that his own model was slightly more advanced than his partner’s. That had been an error in the assembling of the kit he had been given. He would request a replacement as soon as possible), and his sight was at once attracted to the three creatures standing at the back of the shop. With an unpleasant shock, he suddenly understood Elijah’s surprise upon first meeting him.

Could it be possible that all of Earth’s robots were like these? Daneel was aware of Earth’s inferior technology, but he could not believe it was primitive to _this_ level. In fact, that the information he had been given seemed to be at odds with reality distressed him nearly as much as the appearance of the robots, for if he could not trust that information, then how could he make accurate judgments and decide on the correct courses of action?

But no, the technology required to keep Cities functional was impressive, and certainly much more advanced than the one used in the building of the clerks in front of him. Surely there must be some other, logical, explanation for why Earthpeople were still employing robots that seemed to him even more primitive than some he had seen on a book about Susan Calvin he had read in his spare time.

And yet, he could think of none. That distressing appearance was certainly one of the factors stopping Earthpeople from accepting robots as equals, and was likely the reason why Elijah had not realized Daneel would spend that mission with a C-5 rating.

He decided he would ask Elijah about the robots’ appearance on the first opportunity. But right now, they had a potential riot to stop, and Daneel had not allowed his distress to stop him from following the situation closely. Elijah had been arguing with a woman who refused to be waited on by robots, and Daneel wondered if that too couldn’t easily be changed if only the robots did not have an exterior apparently designed to make them seem unworthy of respect. Confused by why it was taking Elijah so long to solve the matter, he decided to ask him about the proper procedure to be followed. It turned out that the shop owner was in the right, but Elijah was hesitating to solve the situation for fear of a riot.

While it should not be necessary for citizens to require more than one officer of the law to direct them in such a situation, he found that, in a way, he was grateful for Elijah’s hesitation. Unlike the technological level of the store robots, this desire for a higher authority was in complete accordance with his briefing, and feeling secure by this confirmation of Earth mentality, he decided that the best course of action would be to take charge of the situation. He turned to the manager.

“Open the force door, sir.”

The man protested, and Daneel could sense that his order had upset Elijah. Yet, he did nothing to stop Daneel from insisting. When the manager at last obeyed, there was initial chaos. The robots reacted to it solely by putting their hands in front of their faces. They had not been ordered to stay or to surrender to the mob, so there was nothing trumping the Third Law. They were supposed to defend themselves, and Daneel had expected them to hide at the inner office. He was shocked at their deficiency in self-protection impulses. If he had not been there, he believed those robots would not have survived the situation, even if riot control had been called. Was this a common occurrence? Did it usually only take one unsatisfied customer for a riot to form and end in the death of multiple robots?

There would be time to investigate those matters later. But for the moment, he must focus on stopping the situation before any violence actually occurred.

“The next man who moves will be shot” he announced, pulling his blaster. It was uncharged, of course, to prevent any possibility of an accident, but the sight of it, he was certain, would be enough to resolve the problem.

“Get him!” someone yelled, but the crowd froze. Daneel used the silence to move to higher position, from which he could be seen by everyone in the store.

Just as he had predicted, it did not take him more than one firm speech to fully restore civic peace. He had done well, he thought, as the crowd dispersed quietly and he waited on the now calm street for Elijah, who, being more familiar with the procedures, was giving newly arrived officers a report of the incident.

After the officers had departed, his partner did not return to the path they were previously taking. Instead, he took Daneel to a secluded corner for a whispered conversation.

“Listen, I’m not trying to steal your show, you understand.”

Of all the problems Daneel had when communicating with human beings, language was one of the most complex. He had been programmed with an extensive vocabulary, and knew every existing grammar rule, but humans seemed to have a tendency to develop local dialects and adopt short-lived idiomatic expressions that could make them utterly  
incomprehensible to people from other cultures, or even from different social groups belonging to the same culture.

Upon being questioned, Elijah clarified that he meant he had not reported Daneel’s actions. Daneel filed away the information that full reports were not required on Earth, and mused on the meaning of the expression “steal your show”. Now that he knew the context, he understood Elijah meant he had not meant to appropriate credit belonging to Daneel.  
Since civil rebellion had been averted, reflected Daneel, and a complete report was not considered important by the local culture, it did not really matter who got the credit, so he did not understand why Elijah was making a point of informing him.

He did not, however, had time to think about this matter, for in response to his stating his thoughts about civil rebellion, Elijah made a most surprising statement.

“Don’t you ever do it again.”

“Never again insist on the observance of the law? If I am not to do that, what then is my purpose?”

“Don’t ever threaten a human being with a blaster again.”

Even though he had been warned about Earthpeople’s irrational fear of robots, Daneel found it upsetting to see his partner forget about the Three Laws. He had meant to look threatening to those who thought him a man, but he had expected Elijah, who knew the truth, to be able to deduce that the blaster he had pointed at the crowd was uncharged. The anti-robot prejudice, however, seemed to be indeed stronger than rationality. Attempts to reason with Elijah resulted in the reply that it was “the purest luck, your not having to fire”, and in his actions being called an unjustified “gamble”. Daneel considered insisting, and explaining his blaster was harmless, but as Elijah was angry and unwilling to listen, he thought it might be more useful to try to understand the human's point of view.

He carefully considered the charges of carelessness being laid at him, and decided they were unfounded. On a Spacer world, where the smaller number of people meant that there was less need for order to be maintained through fear of authority, his actions would indeed have been unjustified. But it was not so on Earth, where he firmly believed any action less drastic than the one he had taken would have failed to peacefully solve the situation. He tried to say so, but it only served to further enrage Elijah.

“If they had recognized you as a robot-“

“I was sure they wouldn’t.”

“In any case, remember that you are a robot. Nothing more than a robot. Just a robot. Like those clerks in the shoe store.”

It was not the first time Daneel had heard a human being repeatedly state an obvious fact, but he still did not understand what the purpose of such an attitude was.

“But this is obvious.”

“And you’re _not_ human.”

Somehow, that clarified the matter. Daneel realized that what Elijah really meant was that he believed Daneel had acted in a way robots should not be allowed to. Although he had acted in accordance to the Three Laws, as well as to his personal purpose, and likely prevented several humans from getting hurt, all that Elijah could take out of the experience was the fact that a robot had exerted authority over humans, which Earth mentality considered unthinkable.

Daneel could not understand or accept that point of view, and wondered if he should try to argue against it. Elijah’s present emotions were making him rather closed to communication at the moment, so perhaps he should let it go until later.

However, there might not be another opportunity for this sort of conversation once they began the investigation. And he knew that Elijah was an intelligent man, and one who had earlier demonstrated kindness towards him (could that also be the reason why he had been anxious to explain he had not meant to steal his credit?) by attempting to brief him about the City, so there was also a chance that he would listen if Daneel made another attempt. Besides, the point was an important one, as Elijah’s responses to it might help him to determine whether or not his partner, whom both he and Dr. Fastolfe had judged promising, might be converted to a C/Fe positive view.

“The division between human and robot is perhaps not as significant as that between intelligence and nonintelligence” he stated, experimentally.

“Maybe on your world, but not on Earth” replied Elijah at once.

Daneel considered it, but could make no sense out of that statement. Surely the irrelevance of any lesser difference between life forms was an objective fact, and not something that could be dictated by societal customs.

“Let’s go now” said the man. “I’ve got to get you home.”

Not wishing to end the discussion, Daneel attempted to speak again.

“You see, it is not proper to make any distinction of lesser meaning than the fact of intel…”

“All right”, interrupted Elijah, nearly shouting, and Daneel felt an unpleasant Second Law induced pull on his brain. “The subject is closed. Jessie is waiting for us. I’d better call and tell her we’re on our way up.”

Unable to continue the argument he wished to make, Daneel hoped Elijah would be open to answering his next question, since it seemed to be one regarding essential practical information.

“Jessie?”

“My wife.”

Marriage, Daneel understood, was a very different institution on Earth than it was on Aurora. Every world had its own traditions in that regard, of course, but as far as he knew, Earth was unique in two aspects: while children were usually wanted, reproduction compatibility was not considered to be the most important factor in selecting a spouse, and the offspring resided with the parents, rather than at special youth facilities.

He found himself curious to meet Elijah’s family. The experience would certainly be a source of several new information about Earth’s culture.


	5. Chapter 5

They entered the building where Elijah resided, but instead of heading directly to the apartment, they stopped in front of the Personal. Elijah seemed to no longer be angry. In fact, his politeness had apparently returned. But for some reason unknown to Daneel, he seemed to be nervous when he spoke.

“Please wait out here, Daneel.”

“Do you intend washing?”

Elijah’s nervousness seemed to increase.

“I’ll shower. It gets crowded evenings. I’ll lose time then. If I get it done now we’ll have the whole evening before us.”

That sounded reasonable and efficient, but Daneel did not fully understand Elijah’s instructions.

“Is it part of the social custom that I wait outside?”

Elijah blushed.

“Why need you do in for- for no purpose?”

“Oh, I understand you. Yes, of course. Nevertheless, Elijah, my hands grow dirty, too, and I will wash them.”

Elijah offered him the use of the washbasin at his apartment. Since Daneel’s function would be best served by getting to know the facilities used by most Earthmen, he refused. But the offer was puzzling to the robot, especially since moments before Elijah had been angry at him.

Daneel’s briefing and programming had told him Earthpeople were rude, aggressive, and ignorant, and he had prepared himself to face this kind of behavior. The incident at the store had been fitting with that information, and thanks to that he had managed to react accordingly and exert his function.

But he had been given no instructions that prepared him to deal someone like Elijah. He was not sure how to react to a person who could at moments attack him for being a robot, and behave exactly like it was expected of a member of Earth society, but could also, sometimes in the same sentence, be extremely generous and kind.

And almost as confusing as Elijah’s attitude was the fact that, when the offer of the washbasin was made, for a quick moment it occurred to Daneel that none of his Spacer colleagues had ever been so kind to him as that Earthman who was admittedly prejudiced against robots anti-robots could sometimes be.

The thought made him uncomfortable, and he pushed it away.

* * *

 

Elijah’s embarrassment was revealed to be the result of a social taboo that forbade any form of social interaction within the Personal and its proximities. Following that custom, Daneel waited quietly in a corner while Elijah showered, and completely ignored the only man who walked into the chamber while he was in there.

Elijah returned and they went at last to his apartment. Jessie was waiting at the door. She seemed to be in her early forties, like her husband, and from what Daneel could judge from his observations of the City, she looked like an average Earthwoman her age. She seemed to be nervous, and upon being introduced, asked him to sit down, and led Elijah away to discuss a family matter. Daneel knew it would not be polite to inquire, but he hoped everything was alright.

While waiting for his hosts to return, he glanced around the living room. His attention was attracted to a few shelves filled with book-films, some of which mentioned robots or robotics in the title. It would be interesting to view what Earth authors had to say about it. He wondered if he might have a chance of examining them.

Most of the book-films, however, dealt with history and archaeology, and although all were well preserved, some bore unquestionable marks of use. The collection did not contain many volumes, but once one considered the small space available in the apartment for its storage, it was clear that for Earth standards that was a large personal library. Daneel wondered if the historical volumes were Elijah’s. That interest had not been listed in any of the files he had read about his partner, which made him wonder if perhaps they should start including information about hobbies on professional files. Such an interest could be relevant to Elijah’s potential interest in the colonization project, as it could indicate he held a realistic view of Earth's past, rather than the Medievalist romantization of it. Besides, in Daneel’s opinion, that hobby was yet another point in favor of Elijah from a professional perspective. Daneel had not had much time to study history in depth himself, but he had heard that it was a good way of understanding the human mind, and he could easily see how a study of its past actions and reactions would help one with that.

Elijah and Jessie returned to the room, and she inquired if they had already dined. Elijah replied quickly that he would eat, but Daneel wouldn’t, and he wondered if that was part of a social custom. He was spared the necessity of asking Elijah later, however, for Jessie gave him a very informative speech related to food customs. He had not known that people who chose to eat at their apartments were allowed less variety and quantity than those who ate at the Community Kitchens. That, he supposed, made his not joining the meal seem like an act of politeness.

He had been thinking of Elijah’s wife as “Jessie” for it was the only name he knew, but he was unsure of what would be the proper way of addressing her.

“Would I be breaking a custom, Mrs. Baley, if I addressed you by your given name?”

“Why, no, of course not. You just go right ahead and call me Jessie all you feel like- uh- Daneel.”

He was puzzled, and could not help feeling that he was breaking a custom after all. Otherwise, why would both her and Elijah pause and appear a bit unsettled when using his name?

An attempt to clarify the situation and make sure he was not overstepping any social boundaries, however, resulted only in Jessie, as she insisted on being called, getting upset. Daneel did not understand which social rule he had broken, but he was glad when the moment was interrupted by the arrival of Elijah’s son.

Daneel eyed him curiously. He had never met a young human being, still in the formative years, before. Bentley had a curious way of speaking, that Daneel assumed must be particular to his age group, and his social interaction with his parents indicated he was expected to obey them, but was of an age in which a certain level of independence was expected, and a bit of rebelliousness, tolerated.

When the family had sat down to eat, Daneel decided their meal would be a good opportunity to view the book-films, and asked for their permission to do so. Bentley, seeming to find them more interesting than a dinner not to his liking, granted him the permission and went to his room to get a viewer. It turned out the book-films about robots were his school books (which increased their interest in Daneel’s eyes, since they were used to form the world view of young minds).

“Are you interested in robots, Mr. Olivaw?” asked the boy.

Elijah seemed disturbed to hear the question. Daneel filed the information that youngsters were expected to address adults formally and replied.

“Yes, Bentley. I am quite interested.”

Bentley went on about his school project as he set the viewer. When he announced he was against robots, however, Elijah interrupted the conversation, seeming agitated, although Daneel could not understand why. Surely the youngster’s opinion was exactly the expected one for a member of his culture. And it had been Daneel who had started the subject when he asked to view book-films about it, so the remark “don’t bother Mr. Olivaw” was puzzling to him.

Although, whatever Elijah’s reasoning, it was kind of him to worry about Daneel’s comfort.

“He’s not bothering me, Elijah. I’d like to talk to you about the problem, Bentley, another time.” It was no empty politeness, he meant it. A youngster’s opinion and way of expressing himself might offer new insights into Earth mentality. But it would have to wait. “Your father and I will be very busy tonight.”


	6. Chapter 6

Bentley’s books were very basic. Most of the texts were focused on the economic consequences of robot labor, and although the language used strived to be neutral, the authors’ negative opinion on the subject was made clear. There were no counterpoints made about the improved efficiency, or about how the robotization of certain tedious jobs left the human population free to invest its time and talents on more challenging ones, as long as the government provided them with good enough education for them to qualify for said jobs.

And not much information was provided about robots themselves. Most books contained a complete quotation of the Three Laws of Robotics, but that was it.

The examination of the history book-films had a more satisfactory result, not for their content, but for the fact that several of them brought Elijah’s name written on the covers.

The meal was over, and the humans started to get ready for the different activities they would each be doing that night. Jessie and Bentley were to leave the apartment to Daneel and Elijah for the evening. Bentley resisted the idea up to the last moment, but Jessie assured Daneel she would usually spend that evening out anyway. She was back to addressing him as “Mr. Olivaw”, and although that puzzled him, he thought it was probably safer to not ask Elijah what he had done to upset her so much. Time was of the essence, and it would be better for the investigation if he did not risk upsetting his partner too.

When they were alone Daneel sat down, facing Elijah, who was moving his hand around the table, without any pattern. The robot did not understand that type of motion, but he knew it for a sign that a human was nervous.

The purpose of the conversation about to start was to discuss the murder and their possible routes of action, but there were security matters to be cleared up first.

“How secure are we against being overheard?”

Elijah seemed surprised at the question. He tried to argue that nobody would do that, and when Daneel pointed out that they should not count on a murderer’s politeness, he got angry.

“See here, if we’re going to be partners, don’t try to imitate Spacer arrogance. There’s no room for it in you, _R_. Daneel.”

There was the anti-roboticism again. Daneel hastened to apologize. Not only did the First Law demand it, but he was also worried that Elijah’s irritation might result in him allowing his prejudices to interfere with the investigation.

His apology might not have been enough, however, as Elijah ignored his objections and insisted on moving on with the subject before the matter of the apartment insulation was solved to Daneel’s satisfaction. The human summarized all he knew about the case. His information was correct, but incomplete, and that flaw in his briefing led him to believe the murder could be, and probably was, the isolated work of a “fanatic”. Daneel did not mind explaining the full situation, and why the murder could only have been the work of an organized group, but he wondered at the lack of efficiency in sending a detective into a case with as little information about it as Elijah had. He hoped this was an anomaly caused by the involvement of Spacetown, and not something common in the City’s police department.

As he started to explain the political background as seen from Spacetown’s perspective, Elijah surprised him by attributing altruistic reasons for the Spacers’ concern towards Earth’s slow progress and intense resistance to being converted to a C/Fe society. Daneel clarified the matter, but could not prevent himself from remarking that such a line of thinking was good of his partner. There was no practical reason for him to make such a comment, he pondered, and yet something in him wished to inform Elijah of how kind he considered him to be.

There were further interruptions to Daneel’s political explanation. Elijah seemed shocked to discover that there were disagreements among the Spacers, which was a reminder to the robot that the population of Earth might be as ill informed about the other worlds as Daneel’s superiors were about Earth.

“Are they still kicking at us for things that happened a thousand years ago?” asked Elijah. It was a pertinent question, in  
Daneel’s opinion, and one that in a way related to a subject he had been wanting to discuss with a human being, but had never had the chance to. He knew there was a risk he would upset Elijah, and he did not wish to, but in his opinion of the man this far, the chances of his question being well received were of about 50%, which somehow seemed higher than they would be if he asked it at Spacetown.

“Humans have their own peculiar makeup. They are not as reasonable, in many ways, as we robots, since their circuits are not as preplanned. I am told this, too, has its advantages.”

“Perhaps it may” said Elijah, and his tone made it clear he thought Daneel had been somehow offensive, and so was not willing to explain what those advantages might be.

“You are in a better position to know” said Daneel, cautiously, as an attempt of apologizing. Judging it better to proceed with his explanation, he told Elijah about the Nationalists’ fear of Earth’s numerically superior population, and Dr. Sarton’s thesis that no further progress could be made in the relationship between Spacers and Earthners until Spacetown knew more about Earth culture, a goal that could only be accomplished via cultural immersion. Elijah scoffed at the idea and pointed out the impossibility of human Spacers entering the City, emphasizing the Spacer’s phobia of diseases. His point was correct, of course, but Daneel was surprised by the anger in the man’s voice tone. It seemed to indicate that he felt highly offended by the Spacer phobia, and Daneel thought he should investigate if that was a common opinion on Earth. If so, it might be one of the problems behind the difficulty in communication between the two cultures. He attempted to explain the legitimate reasons between what he admitted to be a morbid fear, but was unsure if his words had any effect.

“He seems to have worked himself into a corner,” was Elijah’s conclusion about Dr. Sarton’s incapability of entering Earth Cities.

“Not quite. The objections to entering the City hold for human Spacers. Robot Spacers are another thing entirely.”

“Oh?”

Earth mentality was indeed resistant to the concept of working with robots. Elijah seemed to have momentarily forgotten whom he was talking to. After being reminded, however, he understood the original purpose of Daneel’s existence. Daneel had feared that discovering that might lead his partner to see him as an invader, but he seemed to take the information well.

More than that, he seemed curious. Daneel attempted to explain his incomplete education, which could be relevant to his performance during the investigation, but Elijah ignored that and took the conversation to another direction.

“Then not all Spacer robots are like you? I mean, some look more like robots and less like humans. Right?”

“Why, naturally”, replied Daneel. He proceeded to explain that his appearance was due to his function, and found that as he spoke, Elijah seemed to relax. It was as if he had been attempting to keep a defensive posture, but had now temporarily forgotten about it. They should be talking about the case, but Daneel found that discussing robots with an interested Elijah was somehow… Easier. It was as if the topic caused his brain to perform very slightly faster. He wondered what that meant. Might it be a sign of a malfunction, or was this an expected result of the effort he was making to understand Earth?  
He thought it might be best to run a complete test on his systems at the earliest opportunity, but despite knowing that an unexpected reaction in a prototype such as himself might indicate a problem, he found that, likely because faster thoughts could equate better efficiency, he wished the sensation to linger.

“Certainly they are more humanoid than the distressingly primitive models I saw at the shoe counter” he said, answering Elijah’s question about his fellow Spacer Robots. “Are all your robots like that?”

“More or less. You don’t approve?”

“Of course not” he said, relieved at having an opportunity to express his opinion and clear this point. “It is difficult to accept a gross parody of the human form as an intellectual equal. Can your factories do no better?”

Elijah stared directly into his eyes, and Daneel met his gaze. He knew that humans looked at each other in that way when they were trying to better perceive each other’s emotions, as if it were the closest they could get to performing a cerebroanalysis. He himself had no need to resort to methods that to him seemed to be mere guesses (although maybe humans really had a way of telling), and so he had never considered studying that method. Nor had he ever had an opportunity to do so. But now, as he stared back into Elijah’s eyes, he had to admit that there was merit to the human custom. The man’s brown eyes could go through an impressive number of subtle small changes, all matching, and, what was slightly disturbing to Daneel, even surpassing, the changes he could read in his brain waves. Perhaps he should start to pay closer attention to human eyes, although he was unsure if he would be able to learn to read expressions well enough for the method to be useful to him. At the moment, however, both of his readings indicated that Elijah was feeling curious, yet slightly defensive once again.

“I’m sure they can, Daneel. I think we just prefer to know when we’re dealing with a robot and when we’re not.”

“I am hopeful that in time I will grow to understand that point of view” he retorted, earnestly. When there was no reply, he thought that they ought to return to the investigation, although he had not obtained a satisfactory answer to his question. Understanding psychology, he had been told, was something that might take time, and he was working with an incomplete education.

“In any case,” he continued, “Dr. Sarton saw clearly the fact that it was a case for C/Fe.”

“See fee? What’s that?”

Had Dr. Sarton not been murdered, convincing Earthners of the necessity of a C/Fe society would have been Daneel’s main purpose. He hoped the unexpected circumstances would not stop him from managing to explain the concept properly, and that Elijah, as a potential ally to the implementation project, would not react negatively.

“Just the chemical symbols for the elements carbon and iron, Elijah. Carbon is the basis of human life and iron of robot life. It becomes easy to speak of C/Fe when you wish to express a culture that combines the best of the two on an equal but parallel basis.”

“See fee. Do you write it with a hyphen? Or how?”

He was clearly interested,

“No, Elijah. A diagonal line between the two is the accepted way. It symbolizes neither one nor the other, but a mixture of the two, without priority.”

There was a long pause after that. Elijah’s eyes, which had still been fixed on his, seemed to lose focus, as if the man was too entirely focused on his private thoughts to pay the outside world any attention. Daneel could feel a sense of confusion in his mind, but not a negative one. He did not know exactly what Elijah was thinking, but knowing that the human did not feel repulsed by the concept was most satisfactory.

Elijah’s eyes came back into focus and, directing the conversation back to the case, he made an accurate summary of the situation, focusing the reasons why an organized group must be responsible for it, and asked Daneel if he had understood it correctly. When Daneel confirmed it, Elijah began to tap on the table. Daneel had not been instructed on the meaning of that behavior, but he learned from observation that humans sometimes did that when deep in thought.

“It won’t wash. It won’t wash at all.”

Daneel wondered if he would ever be able to learn all human idiomatic expressions.

“Pardon me. I do not understand you.”

Elijah explained his meaning. He did not believe the theory that the Spacers knew to be true, because he did not see how a City dweller could possibly get inside Spacetown unnoticed and armed.

“Then where does that leave you?” he asked, when Daneel confirmed that the entrance was heavily guarded.

“It would leave us in a confusing position, Elijah, if the entrance were the only way of reaching Spacetown from New York City.”

Elijah did not understand him. Daneel gave him a moment, then another clue, but it was in vain. In this, it appeared, his partner’s mind worked in the expected way for a person of his culture, and Daneel found that slightly reassuring. He was not sure he could handle too many surprises on his first night on the field, even if, like Elijah’s occasional kindness, they were mostly pleasant ones.

It would be interesting to see if a visual clue as to how the criminal must have entered Spacetown would produce a better result than the verbal ones had. But Daneel hesitated. He had heard that using images drawn on the spot to illustrate a point during an explanation could be offensive to human beings. He did not understand the reasoning behind that, and chose to ask first, hoping that asking wasn’t in itself offensive.

It wasn’t. Elijah appeared to be intrigued rather than anything else, and willing to listen. He gave Daneel paper and a pen, and stared at the drawing the robot made of Spacetown and New York City.

“There is no other connection” he insisted.

“In a way I am glad to hear you say this” Daneel admitted, before finally explaining that the murderer had likely crossed country. He expected Elijah to begin protesting immediately, like Commissioner Enderby had, but instead he remained quiet for a moment, as if trying to evaluate whether or not Daneel was being serious. Once he realized the robot would not have brought the possibility up if he did not truly believe in it, he began protesting, more sarcastically and less desperately than Enderby, but just as emphatically. It was interesting, this Terrestrian insistence on the impossibility of a person breaking a custom, even in such an obviously unusual situation as murder. If a human being was determined enough to go to the extreme of violently ending another’s life, how could a social custom stop them? Daneel had been told of the importance of social customs to humans, but surely there were exceptions.

He said this to Elijah, and was faced only with further incredulity. His partner asked for evidence, and Daneel presented that of the existence of several unguarded open exit points to the City. The fact did not appear to surprise Elijah, until Daneel informed him of the number of those entrances.

“What?”

“Originally, there were many more. Five hundred and two are all that remain functional. Your City represents a slow growth, Elijah. It was once open to the sky and people crossed from City to country freely.”

“Of course. I know that.”

Of course. The historical book-films. Daneel felt a quick uncomfortable pang on his brain circuits, and made a mental note to remember not to sub estimate Elijah, even when he was acting like a typical Earthman.

“Well” he said, trying to cover up for his slip, “when it was first enclosed, there were many exits left.”

He expanded further on the topic, until Elijah, seeming unconvinced, asked for more information on the case, such as the missing weapon and any other clues.

“The robots on the truck farms were quite useless as possible witnesses” Daneel informed him, unable to completely keep a certain recrimination out of his voice. At the time he had read the reports, he had not understood just how primitive Earth robots were. “They are little more than automatic farm machinery, scarcely humanoid. And there were no humans.”

“Uh huh” acknowledged Elijah, apparently not noticing Daneel was still musing on Earth robots. “What next?”

"Having failed, so far, at one end, Spacetown, we will work at the other, New York City. It will be our duty to track down all possible subversive groups, to sift all dissident organizations--"

“How much time do you intend to spend?”

“As little as possible, as much as necessary.”

Elijah thought for a second.

“Well”, he said, “I wish you had another partner in this mess.”

Daneel felt another uncomfortable pang, which he attributed to the thought of facing that crisis with a less helpful and capable partner.

“I do not” he said, earnestly. “The Commissioner spoke very highly of your loyalty and ability.”

“It was nice of him.”

Was that modesty?

“We didn’t rely entirely on him” he hastened to add. “We checked your records.” He intended to state how satisfactory they were, but instead, decided to risk making a different comment before. “You have expressed yourself openly against the use of robots in your department.”

Why, was the question he wished to ask, but he thought it would be safer not to do so directly, and just see how the man would react to the statement.

“Oh? Do you object?”

“Not at all” Daneel said, regretting his decision. He had expected Elijah to launch on a passionate defense of his point of view, one which might have provided Daneel with interesting insights on the Terrestrian mentality and views on the subject. Instead, once again the man surprised him by asking for his own opinions. He made it clear he did not mind Elijah’s point of view, and that the reason why he had brought up the man’ records at all was that they showed he was the perfect investigator to take on this case.

“You have no personal resentment toward my anti-robot sentiments?”

“If they do not prevent you from working with me and helping me do what is required of me, how can they matter?” Daneel replied instantly. It was the logical answer, he knew it. The mission was all that mattered, and this far he had no complaints at all about Elijah as a partner. He was highly professional, and much more open to discussion than Daneel had expected him to be. The robot was certain that working together they soon would bring Dr. Sarton’s murderer to justice, and that was everything he should be concerned about.

With that in mind, he tried to take his thoughts back to the investigation of subversive New York groups, and away from the puzzling discrepancy between Elijah’s opinions and statement of possessing anti-robot sentiments, and his constant questions about Daneel’s opinions and feelings, as well as his care not to offend him.

It seemed, however, that Daneel’s answer had somehow offended Elijah, for before Daneel could take the conversation back to the investigation, the man asked him, in a rather aggressive tone.

“Well, then, if I pass the test, how about you? What makes you a detective?”

“I do not understand you.”

He had already told Elijah his purpose and initial qualifications. The human was, however, not satisfied by Daneel’s ability to gather information, and Daneel supposed he must take his partner’s thoroughness as a good sign. Besides, he realized, Elijah had been given very little information about him, which made sense, since his superiors did not possess it either. Daneel had not been given instructions in this respect, but he knew a partnership was meant to be an equal relationship, and it was not fair that he knew more about Elijah than Elijah about him. He should tell him.

“To be sure, there has been a final adjustment of my circuits.”

“I would be curious to hear the details of that, Daneel.”

“That is easy enough. A particularly strong drive has been inserted into my motivation banks; a desire for justice.”

“JUSTICE!” said Elijah, but before Daneel could question him on the reason for his surprise, his attention was fully taken by a sound outside the door.

“Someone is out there” he said, turning towards it, ready to leap into action if it turned out to be a conspirator.

The door opened, however, to reveal Jessie. She seemed extremely nervous, and her eyes were turned towards the floor, avoiding both of them. Elijah seemed worried, especially when she failed to give his questions satisfactory answers. Daneel waited, unsure if he was accidentally intruding and keeping her from telling her husband something important. Should he offer to give them privacy?

Before he could, she mentioned she had sent Bentley to the Youth Hall for the night so that Daneel could have his room, and he felt it would be impolite to keep his silence.

“There was no need for that, Jessie.”

She had not looked at Elijah when he spoke to her, but now she turned to Daneel and slowly raised her gaze to firmly meet his.

“I think you are a robot, Daneel.”

“I am.”

He could tell by her mental aura that she was so certain of the fact that there was no reason to deny the truth. Daneel knew he should have insisted on checking the apartment for spyware before beginning the conversation. Elijah had been absolutely sure that such a thing would be impossible, but a man can be blind to his vulnerabilities the shortcomings of his own society. Certainly the conspirators knew by now who the NYC plainclothesman put in charge of the murder was, and would have found ample opportunity to break into the apartment at some moment in which the entire family was out. He and Elijah had not been talking for long, which meant the information had been leaked recently, and the conversation had been carried too in too low a voice tone for someone to have been able to eavesdrop without technical help. He must find the equipment as soon as possible, and notify Spacetown.

But perhaps at first he should offer Elijah help. He seemed to be panicking.

“Elijah…” he started to say, which made Jessie finally look at her husband. Faced with both staring at him, the man got up from his chair and interrupted Daneel.

“Jessie, I will talk to you in a minute. Daneel, work is done for tonight. Follow me.”

He turned and went into the corridor. Daneel followed him to a small bedroom.

“You’re staying here for the night.” Elijah informed him. “I will come for you in the morning.”

“Good night, Elijah” he said, but his partner was already leaving, closing the door behind him, without replying.

 

* * *

 

There were still sounds coming from the other side of the door, of steps and muffled voices. It would be more prudent, Daneel reflected, to inspect the apartment only after the humans were asleep. In order to save time, he decided to report to Dr. Fastolfe while he waited. It would be safe to do so via shielded subether.

“Ah, Daneel” said Dr Fastolfe, a couple of minutes after he had started to attempt contact. “How is the City? Anything to report?”

“No progress yet” he admitted, “but I am afraid there has been a breach in security.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Fastolfe’s voice was sharp.

“Elijah’s wife left for the night, in friendly terms with me. She returned abruptly five minutes ago, and asked me if I was a robot. I saw no reason to deny it.”

“Did she tell you were she heard that?”

“I had no opportunity to. Elijah was highly disturbed by her discovery, and he told me to stay in the bedroom I am in now until he comes to get me in the morning.”

“Of course. Do you have any theories on how this leak could have happened?”

“Spying equipment must have been planted somewhere in the apartment. I’m waiting to search once Elijah and his wife are asleep.”

“Report to me again once you have done that. Anything else worth reporting at the moment? You said there has been no progress yet. What have you been doing?”

“I have mostly been bringing Elijah up to date on the case. He was given disturbingly little information, and could not be expected to do any efficient work without a complete briefing.”

“I see. And how do you find Mr. Baley? Does he seem to be as capable an investigator as Enderby indicated?”

“Elijah is a very interesting man” said Daneel.

“Interesting?”

“He is more open to discussion than I expected from an Earthman. And there was no time to approach this subject, but I think he might become interested in our plans for helping Earthpeople to colonize new planets.”

“Really?” there was a new perk of interest in Fastolfe’s voice. “What makes you say so?”

“His choice in viewing material. His apartment contains a large collection of book-films on history and archaeology, as well as two on sociology, and some of the volumes are well used and seem to have been with him since his school days.”

“Good, that… Shall prove most interesting, indeed. I must talk to Baley at some point. But what do you mean, he is more open to discussion than you had thought? Did his file give you any reason to believe he would be uncooperative? You voiced no concerns.” There was a faint note of sharpness in his voice.

“I had no concerns that were not obvious” Daneel said, surprised. “I am a robot, and of Spacer design and manufacturing. You and Dr. Sarton told me Earthpeople would be hostile to those like myself, and so, although Elijah’s psychological profile indicated he would accept the assignment, I expected him to ask me for relevant information, but resist listening to my thoughts.”

“And he has not done that?”

“No. Rather, he has been asking for them.”

There was a pause. Daneel was about to check if something was going wrong with the transmission, when Dr. Fastolfe at last spoke again.

“I would really like to meet this partner of yours, Daneel. If at any point he shows interest in visiting Spacetown, you have my permission to bring him. Just call me immediately, and we’ll schedule him a visit.”

“Yes, Dr. Fastolfe.”

“And now I think it’s time you got back to your investigation. Contact me again if you find a spy-beam. Otherwise, good night.”

“Good night.”

The transmission was over, and Daneel stood silent for a moment, listening attentively to any possible sounds in the house. Hearing none, he concluded Elijah and Jessie were most likely asleep, and it was safe for him to search the apartment. Unfortunately, the couple’s bedroom would have to remain unsearched, but there was nothing Daneel could do about that at that moment.

He meticulously combed through the sparse bedroom he had been put in, then opened the door as quietly as he could and stepped out. Searching the corridor and the living room provided no results, and he decided to try the closed door on the corridor that did not lead to the occupied room. It led to a third bedroom, as small as his own, but much fuller, and clearly lived in. There were posters on the wall depicting scenes and people Daneel did not recognize, but which judging from the style and words were from hyperwave dramas. A backpack filled with school supplies thrown by the bedside indicated that that was probably Bentley’s bedroom. Daneel was confused. Jessie had said she had sent the youth away for the night so that Daneel could have his room. Why had she lied, and why was Bentley really away? It was difficult to consider the issue without information on family relationships on Earth. On Aurora, infants were raised in specialized care centers, and Daneel’s programming said nothing about them. He supposed Jessie had reasons that made sense to her for not wanting her son to be in the same ambient as a robot, but he lacked data to speculate on what those might be. It could simply be anti-robot prejudice, but it could also be any number of factors he did not know.

Having cleared Bentley’s room of suspicion, he was forced to begin working on the premise that the apartment had not been spy-beamed. And yet, the information about his identity had somehow been spread outside of the apartment, and there was no reasonable explanation other than his conversation with Elijah having been spied on. Elijah had, however, been right in one point: Daneel had tried to focus intensely on hearing sounds from the surrounding apartments, and had been unable to. The walls were quite safe. If equipment of any sort had been installed outside of the apartment, it would have to been a duo-beam. Nothing else would have penetrated the protection of the walls.

But setting up a duo-beam would be a laborious and suspicious activity, one that certainly would have been reported at once. And the equipment was not easy to transport either, especially not amidst the City’s crowds. Of course, there was a recently developed, more modern model that could fit inside a suitcase, and thus be safely transported, but even assuming that the conspirators had access to such equipment, that still left the matter of the impossibility of installing one without attracting attention.

Daneel attempted to review everything he knew about Earth culture to try to solve the problem, and a possible solution presented itself.

“And listen, don’t talk to anybody and don’t look at anybody. Not a word, not a glance! It’s a custom.”

The strength of human social customs, most completely unique to each society, and many of which did not seem to have any practical purpose, might be puzzling to Daneel, but was an undeniable fact to be taken into consideration where human behavior was involved. He had just argued with Elijah about how unwise it was to assume someone willing to commit murder would be hindered by such a thing, but that did not mean that customs might not be used by the culprit to take advantage of the behavior of innocent by-standers who knew nothing about the murder. Elijah had been quite emphatic about the privacy in the Personal custom, which likely indicated it was one of the strongest ones. A man might, then, quite easily have installed a duo-beam at the Personal, which was located quite near the apartment, without raising any suspicion.

As quietly as he could, he left the apartment. The search, however, was quick and proved to have been in vain. There was no sign of a duo-beam in the entire Personal, and he felt quite at a loss as to how Jessie could have discovered his identity. The sensation was frustrating, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Any productive activity would have to wait until Elijah came to him in the morning.

* * *

 

The hours passed slowly, but at last there were sounds in the apartment once again. He heard anxious whispers in the corridor, Elijah’s voice sounding slightly impatient. Then there was the noise of the apartment door opening and closing. He could still hear steps, judging from the sound, Jessie’s. He wondered what was happening. No more than ten minutes passed, however, before he heard the door opening and closing again, and steps approach his door. Then there was a moment of silence, and a knock. He walked to the door, opened it, and saw Elijah fully dressed for work. His cerebroanalysis indicated a surprising level of nervous excitement, and when the man spoke, he sounded more confrontational than on the previous day.

“Good morning, Elijah.”

“Had a good night?”

“Perfectly fine. Did you sleep well?”

He asked partially because he knew it was polite, but also partially because he thought Elijah looked tired.

“Completely” the human said, failing to sound sincere. “We should continue the investigation, then.”

“That would be advisable, yes. Do you have a plan of action?”

“I would like you to arrange me a visit to Spacetown. We are going back to the office, and you can use the trimensional communicator there.”

Daneel wondered for a moment which purpose that would serve for the investigation, seeing as he had already provided Elijah with all the information that could be gathered at the place. But he refrained from questioning him, as doing so might change Elijah’s mind, which would go against Dr. Fastolfe’s wishes.

“There will be no need for that, Elijah. I can communicate with Dr. Fastolfe from anywhere. I will schedule the meeting while you eat.”

“You may do that now, I’ll wait. Let me know when you’re done, and then we’ll go to the office anyway. I need to check something with the Commissioner.”

“What about breakfast?”

“I won’t waste time on that today. We need to get this investigation going.”

Daneel hesitated. He had seem humans at Spacetown occasionally get so caught up in work that they skipped meals, but they always compensated by eating more than their usual on the following meal. In the City, where food was strictly rationed, that would not be an option. Skipping breakfast would not entitle Elijah to a larger portion at lunch, and he would have no opportunity to acquire the calories and nutrients he would not consume at breakfast.

“I appreciate your commitment, Elijah, but there is no need for you to miss a meal. The time it would take for you to eat would hardly…”

“Skipping one meal won’t kill me” he sounded rather impatient, and much less friendly than on the night before. Daneel wondered if that might be because the reveal about his real nature had upset Jessie. Daneel was in no way to blame for her discovery, but he knew humans could sometimes irrationally direct anger at innocent people. He being a robot probably aggravated matters.

“Very well, Elijah, I will establish communication with Dr. Fastolfe at once. However, I do not believe I will be able to schedule a meeting immediately, so there will probably be plenty of time for you to have your meal and still talk to Commissioner Enderby before we need to go to Spacetown.”

“Just arrange the meeting.”

He left the room. Daneel saw no alternative but complying with his request.

“Good morning, Dr. Fastolfe” he said, upon establishing communication.

“Good morning, Daneel. Not having heard from you again last night, I wasn’t expecting you to call again so early. What is happening?”

“Last night’s investigation resulted in nothing. I am calling because Elijah has just requested that I schedule him a visit to Spacetown.”

“Ah, splendid. You may bring him at around 10 am. I will inform the entrance staff. Until then.”

Dr. Fastolfe cut communications. Daneel left the room and informed Elijah of the arrangement. He had expected him to be pleased, but instead he seemed troubled, disturbed, even.

“Are you unwell?”

“What?” Elijah looked at him surprised, as if he hadn’t noticed he had been silent. “Yes, I’m fine.” There was a pause, and then he added, “I just never thought I’d actually enter Spacetown.”

“You will be very welcome in there, Elijah. All the personnel is anxious to find Dr. Sarton’s murderer, and so will do everything in their power to help you.”

“Right” muttered Elijah, sounding unconvinced, even slightly angry. Daneel did not understand, and tried another angle.

“Is there anything I can do to help you feel better about the visit?”

Elijah hesitated, then sat down on a corner of the couch and removed a small package from his pocket.

“The Commissioner lent me these. They are pictures he took on a previous visit to Spacetown. I’ve seen them before, but I was planning on studying them again to prepare myself. It might help if you looked at them with me and gave me some information about the places and people featured.”

“Of course” replied Daneel, sitting by Elijah’s side and looking at the first photograph. “That is the main reunion room. I don’t believe you will be entering it today, as it is only used for meetings between large groups of people. The ones sitting at the table are Doctors Raboten, Thant, and Joenib.”

They looked through several pictures. Most of Spacetown’s inhabitants were featured in them, but there did not seen to be any pictures of Daneel’s creators. He expected Dr. Sarton would eventually appear in at least one of them (he had been fond of pictures. His general absence from this particular set could probably be explained by him being busy conducting early experiments on Daneel), but knew the chances of Dr. Fastolfe being in there were slim. He did not object to being part of official group pictures taken for Auroran records, but he tended to avoid Earth cameras. Daneel had once questioned him on this point. Dr. Fastolfe had smiled and replied that until better communication was established, Earthpeople would in a way remain being adversaries, and that it is never wise to show your adversaries your weaknesses.

“I do not understand to which weakness you are referring to, Dr. Fastolfe” Daneel had said in that occasion. “You are one of our leaders, and our best roboticist.”

“That much is true, Daneel. But we didn’t give you Sarton’s physical appearance just to humor his narcissism, you know” had been the enigmatic answer, and requests for further explanation had been denied.

Elijah moved the picture he had been looking at to the bottom of the pile, and pointed surprised at a person on the next one.

“That isn’t you, is it?”

“No, Elijah, that is my designer, Dr. Sarton.”

“You were made in your maker’s image?” Elijah asked, and his tone was rhetorical, so Daneel thought it best not to answer. Besides, Elijah’s attitude seemed to indicate sarcasm, a form of human communication Daneel had yet to master. He mused on a few seconds for a possible reason for Elijah’s comment and, finding none, decided it would be better to move on to the next picture. Hopefully, someday soon all that currently puzzled him would be made clear by further experience.

Seeing an image of Dr. Sarton seemed to improve Elijah’s mood, although he was still not as communicative as he had been on the previous evening. When they were done looking at the pictures, he said simply “it’s time we get to City Hall”, and walked to the door. Daneel followed, and they were silent through most of the trip.

“Elijah” Daneel said once they got to the building, “if you need to speak to Commissioner Enderby in private, would it be possible for someone to give me a tour of the office while I wait for you?”

The man seemed startled.

“Yes, of course. Just… Tell them you’re from Washington. No indications about who you are or where you are from.” Elijah whispered, anxiously.

“Obviously.”

“Wait here.”

Elijah entered the office, and returned three minutes later accompanied by a man in his late thirties.

“Jack Torbin, Daneel Olivaw.”

“How do you do, Mr. Olivaw?” asked the man, extending his hand, and Daneel, remembering previous incidents, decided it would be best to stick to formality this time.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Torbin” he replied, shaking the offered hand.

“Lije says you want a tour of the office.”

“Yes, if it won’t disturb your work.”

“Not at all, I’m glad for the excuse for a break. But you’ll probably get bored. I don’t think things here are very different from the offices at Washington.”

Daneel wondered for a moment how a City man would respond to that. Had he made a mistake in asking for a tour from someone other than Elijah? No, if his request had been too unusual, Elijah would have warned him.

“Perhaps not, but it is not often that one has the opportunity to see another City in person” he risked, and that seemed to satisfy Torbin.

“That’s thankfully true. Traveling outside one’s home City is a very uncomfortable experience, but I suppose one might as well make the best out of it.”

“Have you been to many other Cities, mr. Torbin?”

“Of course not! I was stating the obvious. I’m a lowly C2, never been out of NYC myself. Higher status has its cost, I guess. I don’t have the privileges you C5s have, but I get put in much less trouble.”

“You have no idea, Jack” sighed Elijah. “Speaking of which, I must speak to the Commissioner.”

Elijah left.

* * *

 

Daneel followed Torbin down a corridor, and listened to his short explanations. He could not ask many questions, as Torbin was showing him machines and archiving styles with which a C5 plainclothes man from Washington would be familiar. He nodded every time Torbin named a piece of equipment, and found that since he couldn’t ask the questions he wished to, there wasn’t much opportunity for conversation. Torbin was a quiet man, for which Daneel supposed he should be grateful, since otherwise there might have been questions about Washington that he would not have been able to answer.

He was also glad for the silence because it gave him the chance to focus on speculation about the machines. On hindsight, it seemed obvious that the Earth police force would need machines of that potency, but he had never imagined anything like them. They could store and cross-reference information about billions of peoples, offences, arrests, reports, and questionings. His programming contained no references to any non-positronic machines of such complexity, and he was amazed both at their existence and at the depth of Spacer ignorance on Earth culture and technology. Granted that the smaller population of the Spacer worlds made those exact machines unnecessary at any inhabited planet but Earth, he could not help wondering if there was not anything that Spacers could learn from the technology employed to build and maintain them.

The tour ended, and Daneel felt fairly certain he was now able of making full use of the office. He thanked Torbin and asked him where he should wait for Elijah (“mr. Baley”, he said, remembering that Elijah had initially addressed him as “mr. Olivaw”. He was unsure if he understood Earth people’s various forms of address. Everyone in the office referred to Elijah as “Lije”, and such diminutives seemed to be somewhat common, although only among people who’d known each other for years. Others apparently addressed each other formally. Jessie’s insistence on being addressed by a diminutive was at odds with this theory, however. This matter might require further investigation).

“Oh, Lije may be done with the Commissioner by now. And”, a sorrowful look passed through his face, “I should probably go back to work. You may take a chair at the lounge, and I’ll…” he looked around as he spoke, his words drifting into a momentary silence, and then he shouted “boy!”

Daneel turned to see who Torbin was calling. He had seen no youngsters around the office.

It was a robot who answered, and upon seeing him, Daneel felt once again the unpleasant shock he had experienced at the shoe store on the previous evening. This robot was slightly more advanced than the store clerks, but his appearance was still disturbingly primitive. His face displayed an apparently permanent smile that made him look incompetent, and Daneel felt unable to understand why anyone would consider that a desirable characteristic on a co-worker.

The robot approached with no sign of surprise or disappointment at the rude way Torbin had addressed him. Earth models, Daneel thought, were probably built without any sense of self-worth.

“Hello, Jack” he said. In his first days of life, Daneel had expected Earth robots to be extremely deferential and formal when addressing humans, but he had later been informed, once that information reached Spacetown, that they were actually programmed to be friendly and informal, which the government hoped made them look less threatening. Daneel did not understand that measure. No robot could threaten a human being’s safety, and while he knew that Earthpeople saw robots as an economic threat, surely the “friendship circuit”, as it was called, did nothing to diminish the socio-economic effects of robot labot. “How may I help you and your visitor?”

“Tell Lije mr. Olivaw is ready.”

Instead of obeying, the robot turned to Daneel.

“Nice to meet you, mr. Olivaw” he said. “I am R. Sammy. I will be glad to help you with anything you may need during your stay at our office. May I ask your first name?”

“Didn’t you hear what I told you? They said you were supposed to follow orders!” snapped Torbin. Daneel did not dare break character, for it might endanger his whole mission, but he found the sum of R. Sammy’s primitive appearance and Torbin’s aggressiveness to be disturbing. His body was feeling uncomfortably heavy, as if he had just entered an area of heightened gravity, and he believed he would be unable to treat R. Sammy in such a rude manner without displaying some very slight malfunction.

But he wouldn’t have to. Elijah had constantly been extremely kind to him through the afternoon and the night before, and even his coldness on the early morning could not be compared to Torbin’s rudeness. Surely that meant that showing commonplace politeness towards robots was not unheard of in that office. He should not be as nice as he wanted to, but trying to avoid causing poor R. Sammy confusion or distress would probably not be strange enough to give him away.

“Treating people by their first name is part of his programming, mr. Torbin, he can’t help it.” And to R. Sammy, “I am Daneel.”

“Hello, Daneel. I will go for Lije right away.”

Sammy went away, and Torbin stared uncertainly at Daneel.

“Answering him was the fastest way to make him leave.”

“Maybe… But I could never bring myself to be that polite to one of those things. Aren’t they causing teenage declassification in Washington?”

“They are” said Daneel, cautiously. “But yelling at individual robots who are following orders does not solve the problem.”

“It may not, but not yelling at them would generate more. Being nice to that thing would turn my stomach. I must go back to work, mr. Olivaw.”

Torbin shook Daneel’s hand once more, less enthusiastically this time, and returned to work much faster than his previous attitude indicated he was willing to. Daneel took a seat- it was unnecessary, of course, but he must do his best to pass as human- and passed the time by wondering if he should ask Elijah for advice on how to act if he once again found himself alone with a human being who did not know the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news: extra large update today. :)
> 
> Bad news: it'll be the last, at least for a while. I apologise to anyone who may have been enjoying this fic. Writing it is no longer as fun as it was in the beginning. I may return to this someday. I actually hope I will. But for now, that is it. I'm sorry. :/


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